Following my shocking 'wimping out' at marathon distance last time I ran at Ranscombe Farm I had one objective on undertaking the Winter Challenge, and that was to complete eight laps as an absolute minimum. In stark contrast to our last visit in the summer when the place was awash with colourful wild flowers it was now expressing an understated, desolate beauty on a bright but freezing cold January morning. I was dressed for the long haul with five layers of clothing on my upper body in a determined statement to myself that external factors were not going to impact on my race today.
We had a few announcements before the start; a couple of 99th marathons being run today, John and Rosie completing their 52 in 52 weeks as a married couple and Davo being presented with his 100 Marathon Club shirt and then we were off on our first lap. Initially the ground was frozen and uneven which made for tough underfoot conditions in my minimally padded trail shoes, but at least it was firm and reasonable progress was made. The 3.8 mile lap includes two testing hills which I had already decided to hike rather than run in order to conserve energy. I was using my new Suunto Ambit watch for the first time and realised that it did not show cumulative time and I didn't want to fiddle with settings on the run in case I messed things up. This was a minor issue as the rules of the event were that you had to have commenced you final lap prior the the 7 hour 15 minute mark as it was a 8 hour challenge and it would be tough to tell how close I was to cut-off, but in any case, all I had to do was keep moving at whatever pace I could manage so it wasn't a great problem.
At some point on the first lap I decided that to treat the run as three segments of three laps each. The first was the easy section to be enjoyed, have a chat with others and ease myself into the challenge. The next three laps were to be getting down to business, to keep working and avoid losing time at the aid station, Finally I would have to get through the tough section. I knew I would be hurting by this time and would have to show a degree of determination to persist. I took on early food in the form of a Clif Bar after each of the first two laps and another thereafter if I'd felt any degree of hunger during the prior lap. On a couple of occasions a calf felt a little crampy and so I countered this with an S-Cap salt capsule which did the trick.
The early brightness clouded over and we experienced the first of a couple of snow flurries but my layers were doing their job and I felt good. Mandy was attempting to complete four circuits and I caught up with her near the end of her third. The cold was getting to her and she was feeling miserable, unable to travel quickly enough to generate enough body heat to counter the ambient temperature. I felt sorry for her but she took the sensible decision to finish early and warm up in the car.
Eventually the ground began to thaw but this turned the terrain into slippery, thick mud which was particularly cloying in one field. This made my third three-mile segment even more challenging so I fired up my music and attempted to go into the isolated zone where I can concentrate on simply moving forward continuously with no concern over pace. The hills were increasingly demanding on tired legs and the sheer weight of clay attaching to my trail shoes made actually lifting my feet from the ground a real challenge at times. It wasn't worth stopping and scraping it all off as you were back in the same position after a few more steps. A 20 minute mile was recorded on my final lap but it was the fastest I could travel at that point.
I completed my ninth lap in 7:16, one minute over the cut-off time for starting a final lap but in truth I would have stopped anyway, I think I may have come to a complete halt in the most difficult field and would probably still be standing there now! Despite that I was very pleased with how it went. I'm allowing myself more recovery time this year after spending 2014 piling up the miles which, ultimately, I don't think worked too well for me. Running very little during the week when I have a lot arranged for the weekend is getting me to my races with fresh legs and as a result I am enjoying them far more and I was delighted with my achievements in this one given that I am still building up base fitness. I didn't once consider stopping until my final lap and it was about 24 miles into the run before I really felt much fatigue at all.
17th January 2015 Ranscombe 8 hour Challenge 32.4 miles 7:16:02 #54
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